Since the all-female Blue Origin space crew, including Gayle King, safely returned to Earth, speculation has lingered online—some question whether they truly went to space or if the trip was just an expensive publicity stunt. However, these baseless conspiracy theories can be easily dismissed, as they did experience space. Previously reported, the King and her crew traveled on a suborbital flight, New Shepard, to the Kramen line, 62 miles above Earth, the recognized boundary of space. Despite this successful trip, some observers zeroed in on some details from this viral recap video that raise skepticism.
For example, King’s and Perry’s hair remained still compared to the floating hair strands seen of astronauts in space. Also, Jeff Bezos was seen opening the shuttle door inward after landing, flagging safety concerns about the pressure differential. These details alone have awakened online conspiracy theorists, including celebrity artist Azealia Banks, who called it like she saw it on X, posting. “I don’t think they even went to space that sh** was fake af. How they back already? It’ s been like 40 mins.”
“I’d say this is the nail in the coffin. FAKE!,” One X commentator posted. “Space capsules, including New Shepard’ s, are generally not designed to open from the inside immediately after landing due to safety protocols, such as ensuring the external environment is secure and the capsule is stable.”
In efforts to close the loop on the online chatter, here are the answers to your burning questions:
So, Why Didn’t Their Hair Lift In Space?
Some people compared the all-women Blue Origin crew to astronaut Sunita Williams, named “woman with the wild hair” by Donald Trump, who spent months living in microgravity. Here is the key difference: Williams was in space for over nine months, while the all-women crew was in space for 11 minutes from lift off to landing, with only a few minutes of weightlessness while in microgravity. Simply put, the short burst of microgravity wasn’t enough time for their hair to noticeably rise.
What About The Shuttle Door When The Capsule Landed?
Suspicions grew from a specific portion of the footage that drew attention to the safety measures of the flight. In recent reports, the capsule’s hatch was slightly open and closed. You can see that Jeff Bezos officially opened it after landing. Conspiracy theorists pointed out this was unsafe, as someone with tools should be able to open from the outside due to the pressure differential. According to NASA, hatch doors should be operable by a single crewmember, without tools, from both sides. It is easy to conclude that someone may have prematurely opened the door before Bezos got the chance to welcome the crew back to Earth. So no scandal, just human error.
So, now that we have cleared this up, it is time to put a bow on this issue and wrap it up.